Universal Health Care Could Have Saved More Than 330,000 U.S. Lives during COVID

[Jim__]

From Scientific American - I don't believe it's behind a paywall.

?w=590&h=800&52BAD1E8-6FCA-439F-87E2813AC34379CB

A woman walks among a field of some 660,000 white flags representing the number of U.S. lives lost to COVID-19 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on September 16, 2021. Credit: Rod Lamkey/CNP/Sipa USA/Alamy Stock Photo

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Americans spend more on health care than people in any other nation. Yet in any given year, the piecemeal nature of the American medical insurance system causes many preventable deaths and unnecessary costs. Not surprisingly, COVID-19 only exacerbated this already dire public health issue, as evidenced by the U.S.’s elevated mortality, compared with that of other high-income countries.

A new study quantifies the severity of the impact of the pandemic on Americans who did not have access to health insurance. According to findings published on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, from the pandemic’s beginning until mid-March 2022, universal health care could have saved more than 338,000 lives from COVID-19 alone. The U.S. also could have saved $105.6 billion in health care costs associated with hospitalizations from the disease—on top of the estimated $438 billion that could be saved in a nonpandemic year.

“Health care reform is long overdue in the U.S.,” says the study’s lead author Alison Galvani, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis at the Yale School of Public Health. “Americans are needlessly losing lives and money.”
Advertisement

People who do not have insurance usually do not have a primary care doctor, which means they are more likely to suffer from preventable diseases such as type 2 diabetes. They also tend to wait longer to see a doctor when they fall ill. These two factors already contribute to higher mortality rates in nonpandemic years, and they compounded the impacts of COVID-19. Comorbidities exacerbate the risk of the disease, and waiting to seek care increases the likelihood of transmission to other people.

more ...

[IbogaProject]

1. This leads to higher ER usage too

The selling point to "those with coverage" is the current system causes too many to use the Emergency Rooms, often at night or weekends. This worsens every one's ER outcomes.

[Ollie Garkie]

2. Remember kids...

The opposers of UHC are "pro-life" fetus fetishists, the unambiguously living be damned

[RicROC]

3. It might have saved my brother from covid..

because he avoided doctors, not having enough for the copays.

Yet, he was a very vocal Trumper and refused to be vaccinated.
It's his own d**ned fault he voted against any Dem who could have provided the vote for providing health care.